• Those who opposed reforms could become victims of electoral fraud.
• Victims of electoral fraud could have the last laugh. While they laugh, the people who desire responsible leadership moan
The power bug blinds when it bites. When bitten, opportunistic victims forget history. But that has always been the case in a country where the power clique influences legislation to suit vested interests.
Those who opposed reforms could become victims of electoral fraud. Previous victims of electoral fraud could have the last laugh. While they laugh, the people who desire responsible leadership moan.
This might happen unless the reactionaries find a new song - and a cantankerous chorister. The song is, 'No reforms, no elections in 2022!' They could modify this popular tune of the disenchanted.
It was the late Homa Senator Otieno Kajwang', the precocious son of protest politics, who coined the 'Bado Mapambano' tune. Doctors, teachers, lecturers and students have always adopted the tune when they picket.
If the reactionaries adopt the tune, and the drama that goes with it, teargas truck drivers would find business during the countdown to the 2022 General Election. But do they have the capacity to sustain 'Teargas Monday'?
Would they lobby for electoral reforms after casting the image of anti-change? Would they have the verve to eat teargas—vapour and water? These people would need retraining to understand how 'The System' works.
Partisan political strategists are ignoring electoral dynamics of the last 20 years. Are their memories that short and selective? Or is there something right-thinking observers are missing?
Partisan political strategists are ignoring electoral dynamics of the last 20 years. Are their memories that short and selective? Or is there something right-thinking observers are missing?
The only time votes have counted was during the December 27, 2002, General Election. Then, the united will of a country made regime change possible. People power ejected Kanu monopolists, after 25 years of stagnation.
People were tired of Kanu misrule. They said as much, with the vote. The rejection was complete. The resolve was strong, no incumbent could impose its will on a tired citizenry. There was the will. The people found the way.
Raila Odinga personified change under the National Rainbow Coalition of 2002. Attempts to recast the 'Kibaki Tosha!' declaration does not devalue the fact change moments require a rallying force—and a cause.
In subsequent elections, vote counters and the deep state have had their sway and say in electoral choices. Preventable violence, dispossession and murders have always followed bungled elections. It has been a cycle of ruinous mayhem. The peak was the December 27, 2007, presidential election.
The Mwai Kibaki regime used 'The System' to reverse the gains of the 2002 presidential election. He did this through a vicious stranglehold on strategic state machinery: Kibaki owned the courts, so judicial petition wasn't an option for the aggrieved. Kibaki owned the police, so they responded to the call to kill.
The only time votes have counted was during the December 27, 2002, General Election...In subsequent elections, vote counters and the deep state have had their sway and say in electoral choices.
The Kibaki regime had a stranglehold on the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya. The commissioners did Kibaki's bidding, in what remains the most outrageous betrayal of democracy.
The coalition government of 2008-2012 did not temper the Kibaki regime's penchant for mendacity. While the president and his allies enjoyed state power, his coalition partners shared blame for its foibles.
ECK chairman Samuel Kivuitu was kidnapped, and then driven to State House to preside over a clandestine swearing-in. This happened within minutes of the electoral fraud, and against the backdrop of violence.
Kenya exploded in the hands of the late Kivuitu, who had presided over free and fair elections in 2002. Kibaki, a beneficiary of that election, was celebrating fraud five years later. His claim he was 'duly' elected is a matter of historical record.
This is what the amity between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the People's President Raila Odinga is about. To oppose this is to spite victims of electoral violence.
Former Mukurweini MP Kabando wa Kabondo has his ears to the wall when he says: "Anyone sabotaging Uhuru's reconciliation and reunification agenda is on self-ruin. Anyone mocking Uhuru's war on graft is destined for political waste."